With a new concentration on indigenous communities, the Peruvian C.P.’s recruitment campaign of 1931 grows the Party from 500 to over 1700 members.

‘The Growth of the Communist Party of Peru’ by Gomez from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 12 No. 26. June 9, 1932.

The Communist Party of Peru–one of the youngest, and at the same time, one of the best Communist Parties of South America–carried out from July 15 to September 15, 1931 a big campaign for the enlistment of new members for the Party, having signed a revolutionary competition agreement with the C.P. of Chile. According to this agreement the Communist Party of Peru which had about 500 members, was to recruit in the indicated period 984 new members. The results of the recruiting campaign have shown that the C.P. had under-estimated its own influence among the workers: despite the short duration of the campaign, 1,739 new members were recruited. This means that in the course of two months the C.P. of Peru grew almost by 400%.

Indian agricultural labourers and ruined peasants have for the most part swelled the ranks of the Party. The enormous influx of Indians into the C.P. is of considerable importance not only to Peru, but to the whole of South America. The Indian population is the most oppressed, and is undergoing at the same time a rapid process of revolutionisation. In the revolutionary struggle against imperialism and feudalism, the national revolutionary movement of the Indians will play an important part. Peru is one of the most important centres of the revolutionary movement of the Indian masses. The C.P. of Peru sets the example to all the other South American C.P.’s how to work among Indians, what must be done to bring them over to the side of the proletariat, despite all the existing difficulties (difference in language, the Indians’ lack of confidence in the whites, including even the workers, etc.).

In order to get into the “gasiendas” and “gamonales” of the big landowners, and also into the Indian communes, the C.P. of Peru made use in the first instance of the unemployed Indian miners who were returning to their commune or to the estate of the landlord. Many of them have shown themselves as the best propagandists of the Party and organisers of Party nuclei among the Indians. Even non-Party Indian miners have done much for the popularisation of the C.P.

For the enlistment of Indians for the C.P., and for the establishment of Party nuclei in the “gasiendas”, “gamonales” and communes, the Party made use also of urban artisans–semi-proletarians, who in most cases are Indians or half-breeds. Such artisan members of the Party who are closely connected with the rural Indians and have their full confidence, constitute 17.1% of the total Party membership. Thanks to them, the C.P. has organised a series of nuclei on the estates and in the communes and has recruited a considerable number of Indians for its ranks. During the recruiting campaign, the C.P. organised in a small Indian village in the South a mass demonstration of the Indians for the restitution of the cattle that had been recently taken away from them by the landlord. This struggle was soon crowned with success, and the news of it spread throughout the South, and strengthened considerably the prestige of the C.P.

Though the social composition of the Party has considerably improved (workers constitute 45% of the membership, and even 60% in the organisation in the capital), one must say that the C.P. has hardly made use of the enormous possibilities for the enlistment of industrial workers in the main branches of industry (oil fields, mines, sugar and cotton plantations, etc.). The C.C. itself has admitted that the majority of the factory nuclei did not carry out the tasks set them, and that with a few exceptions, the number of workers recruited by them is considerably below the plan. During the recruiting campaign, the C.P. did not organise mass demonstrations in the towns and, what is more serious, did not even participate in the strikes that were taking place.

The C.P. which had not paid sufficient attention to the enlistment of industrial workers, followed the line of least resistance by recruiting a relatively large number of artisans, students, etc. The C.C. of the C.P. of Peru has frankly admitted this fundamental defect of the recruiting campaign, which shows its readiness to remedy it.

In order to keep the new members in the Party, one must organise short-term study circles, so as to familiarise young Party members with the statutes and the most important decisions of the C.P. and C.I. The new members must be drawn into the work of the C.P. through the lower Party organisations–the Party nuclei whose activity must also be brought up to the mark.

Simultaneously with energetic work for keeping the newly made members in the C.P., the Party must work for its further growth, first and foremost, by drawing into its ranks workers employed in the main branches of industry, including enterprises belonging to foreign capitalists.

Simultaneously, the C.P. must persevere in the correct course of energetic recruiting of Indians, especially, proletarians and semi-proletarians-agricultural labourers in the “gasiendas” and peasant semi-serfs in the “gamonales”. At the same time, the C.P. must pay special attention to enlistment of Negro and Chinese journeymen and agricultural labourers who are exploited in the North of the country under semi-slave conditions.

In this manner the C.P. of Peru will not only increase its membership, but will also fight fluctuation which is still the most serious defect in most of the C.P.’s of South America and the Caribbean countries.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

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